Sagaciousness, experience,

Fruits of piety and maturity

36. Ordinarily, people are called wise through the
incorrect application of the word. Not those that have studied the utterances
and writings of ancient sages are wise, but those that can differentiate
between good and evil: they avoid everything that is harmful to the soul and
with deep gratitude to God, judiciously cherish everything that is good and
beneficial. In all truthfulness, they are the only ones that should be called
wise.

36. When there is a calm wind, every seaman can
have a high opinion of himself and boast. However, only during a sudden turn in
the wind will the skill of an experienced navigator show through.

38. A person leading a pious life will not allow
evil to enter his soul. When there is no evil in the soul, it is secure and
unscathed. Neither evil demons nor mischance have any authority over these
people. God delivers them from evil and they live God-like — protected from
harm. He will not treat praise seriously and he will neither defend himself
against any denouncement nor be annoyed with the perpetrator. 38. He that is
without anger is complete and God-like; he is full of joy and God the Holy
Spirit. Just as an unattended fire burns down great forests, anger, if allowed
into the heart, will destroy your soul, desecrate your body and evoke many
foolish and offensive thoughts. It will arouse in you agitation, covetousness,
arguments, hatred and likewise ferocious passions that will weigh you down and
inflict great sorrows. Consequently, let us attempt to gather the goodness and
naiveté of the Saints so that our Lord Jesus Christ received us and each one of
us could exclaim joyfully: "As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And set me before Your face forever" (Psalm 41:12).

38. Just like a body that emerges from a womb
prematurely cannot survive, neither can a soul that has not acquired knowledge
of God through benevolent living be saved or live in communion with God.

38. Like a body (while its soul still resides in
it) passes through three periods, specifically: adolescence, mature then old
age, so does the soul pass through 3 periods i.e.: beginning of faith,
progressing in it and then completeness. In the first period the soul begins to
believe — as the Gospel says — it is born in Christ. The Apostle John gives us
signs of this new birth, applicable to all three periods: "I write to you,
little children…I write to you, fathers…I write to you, young men…" (1
John. 2:12-14). He wrote this not to his physical friends but to the faithful,
revealing the three situations passed by those that strive toward the spiritual
realm, so as to attain completeness and be worthy of total blessedness.

39. When sin ceases to dominate a person, God
appears to the soul and cleanses it together with the body. If sin continues to
control the body, that person is incapable of seeing God: because the soul is
still located in a sinful body that does not allow the vision of God — Who is
light — to enter it. David declares: "In Your light we see light"
(Psalm 36:9). What kind of light is it that a person can see light in it? It is
that light about which our Lord Jesus Christ mentions in the Gospel, that the
whole person should be full of light so that there should not be any dark areas
in him (Luke 11:36). Our Lord also said: "and no one knows the Son except
the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom
the Son wills to reveal to Him" (Mat. 11:27). The Son does not reveal His
Father to the sons of darkness, but only to those who dwell in the light and
are sons of the light, whose inner eyes have been enlightened by Him with the
knowledge of the commandments.